Johnny Cash, the Man in
Black, was one of the most influential American
singer/song writers of the 20th century.
He was very influential in the formation of both
rockabilly and rock and roll. His music appealed to
a large cross section the population as demonstrated
by his election into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame,
the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall
of Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Rolling
Stone Magazine listed Cash as 31st in
their list of 100 Greatest Artist of All Time. Cash
wrote over 1,000 songs in his life, released 96
albums, and 153 singles. Thirty seven of his songs
made their way onto Billboard's Top One Hundred List
and his song A Boy Named Sue was #2 on the
pop charts for three weeks. His string of hits
started in 1955 with Hey Porter and continued
through 2002 with the last of his four albums made
with American Recordings.

Cash started his
recording career with Sun Records along with Elvis
Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee
Lewis. Sun released an album which was a recording
of an impromptu jam session with Presley, Perkins,
Lewis, and Cash. The album was entitled Million
Dollar Quartet. Despite his string of hits at Sun,
in 1958 Cash left Sun because of disputes over money
and artistic control. Cash immediately signed with
Columbia and released his first Columbia album, The
Fabulous Johnny Cash, in January 1959.

The Fabulous Johnny
Cash, which is being reviewed here, contains two of
Cash's big single hits, namely Don't Take Your
Guns to Town and I Still Miss Someone.
Don't Take Your Guns to Town made it to #32 on
the Pop Singles chart and #1 on the Country Singles
list. I Still Miss Someone, which has since
been covered by a number of big name artists, was
perhaps Cash's favorite song as he recorded it many
times over his long career. The remaining ten songs
on the album include both covers such as
Summertime and Cash originals such as
Frankie's Man, Johnny which is Cash's humorous
take on the traditional Frankie and Johnny ballad.

Most people that lived
through the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and even into the
'90s remember Cash's distinctive deep bass-baritone
voice. Besides having a marvelous sounding voice he
was also a master at evoking emotions with his
voice. Whether Cash was invoking heart-felt sympathy
on songs like Folsom Prison Blues, making you
laugh with A Boy Named Sue, telling stories
like Don't Take Your Guns to Town, or making
you stomp your feet with something like Get
Rhythm, Cash captured his audience. This was
particularly true in concert. However, even his
recordings captured part of the magic that was
Johnny Cash.

If you want to hear some
of Cash's magic on vinyl there are tons of used
albums available. Thrift stores are stocked with
them, though most have been played far too many
times. However, even if you find a pristine, mint
Cash album it won't have great sound. From 1958 to
1986 all of Cash's albums were released by Columbia.
As I have said before, Columbia had very good
recording engineers. All you have to do is listen to
some of the recent audiophile vinyl releases of
Columbia master tapes to know that the recordings
were done by people who knew how to record. Where
Columbia fell down was in the mastering and pressing
stages where they failed miserably. With few
exceptions, the sound of Columbia LPs are average at
best. It was not until the end of Cash's life, when
he recorded his last four albums with American
Recordings, that people got to really hear the magic
of Cash's voice on a recording. While I treasure my
American Recordings LPs I have always wondered what
some of Cash's early albums would sound like if they
were given an audiophile release. With their reissue
of The Fabulous Johnny Cash, Impex Records has
answered that question. They can sound very good.

I did comparisons
between the sonics of the Impex Columbia reissue
versus original Columbia Cash LPs and also against a
reissue by Rhino of Cash's early Sun Records hits
and against the American Recordings LPs. The
American Recordings LPs do sound the best. They were
audiophile recordings. However, one must keep in
mind that it is much easier to record one person
singing and playing an acoustic guitar than it is to
record an ensemble. Also, tremendous improvements
were made in recording equipment over the
intervening 40 years. Thus, it is not surprising
that the American Recordings have the best sound.
However, the Impex reissue, while falling slightly
short of the sonics of the American Recordings, is a
major improvement over the original Columbia LPs.
Better quality, quieter vinyl. No veils obscuring
subtle details. No murkiness. This is the way to
listen to Johnny Cash. I can now sit down and listen
to and really enjoy the songs without being
distracted by my subconscious cursing of the
Columbia sonics.

If you love Johnny Cash
or you just want to hear some great singing by one
of the all-time greats, buy this album.

The Original Recordings
Group has been reissuing a number of jazz,
classical, and popular albums on 45rpm vinyl. The
first of their 45rpm reissues that I purchased was
the soundtrack to Gladiator. I had loved the
Decca CD of Gladiator and was curious as to
what the difference would be between the CD and a
45rpm LP. As it turned out I preferred the LP over
the CD for its more natural sound which brought me
closer to the music. With that experience I
purchased the Three Cornered Hat 45rpm two
disk set. This recording was one of the early Decca
recordings with Ernest Ansermet and the L'Orchestre
de la Suisse Romande. Both the performance and the
recording quality have always been highly regarded.
The recording was originally released as Decca SXL
2296 and as London CS 2224. I don't have either the
original London or Decca. However, I do have an
audiophile reissue of the Decca on 33 1/3rpm. So I
decided to make a comparison of the 45rpm ORG vs the
audiophile reissue 33 1/3rpm. I started doing A-B-A
comparisons between the two. At first I thought the
45rpm was cut at a slightly higher volume, maybe 1
or 2dB higher than the 33 1/3rd. Using my Radio
Shack Sound Pressure Level meter I measured the
sound levels of both albums at the beginning of the
Three Cornered Hat and also at the beginning of the
conclusion (start of side 2 on the 33 1/3rd). The
sound levels were nearly identical. So why did the
45rpm sound louder? As I did more A-B-A comparisons
I concluded that the perceived volume difference was
due to the difference in the initial transients. On
the 45rpm the transients seemed to reach their peak
loudness slightly faster than on the 33 1/3rd. If
you were looking at the transient signal on an
oscilloscope you would see that the wave form of the
transient on the 45rpm was slightly more of a square
wave (faster initial rise time) than the same
transient played on the 33 1/3rd. This makes sense
as 45rpm LPs have always been considered more
dynamic than their 33 1/3rd counterpart because the
higher speed transmits more energy to the stylus.
This is why audiophiles love 45rpm LPs.

After playing the 45rpm
and 33 1/3rd albums completely through from
beginning to end on several different days I found
that I enjoyed listening to the 45rpm album more
than the 33 1/3rd. I think that was because the
micro dynamics of the 45rpm were able to bring me
slightly closer to what I hear in the concert hall.
I was very happy with my US$35 33 1/3rd reissue. It
is a fine LP. However, I am equally as glad that I
spent the US$50 to buy the 45rpm. The extra money
was worth the increase in sound quality.